The recording of his appearance on a Sunday night political discussion show has since become a viral hit on the Internet, spreading almost as quickly as a similar slip made last month by former justice minister Rachida Dati.

Dati laughed off her faux pas, which was seen 2.8 million times on just one video website and in which she misspoke while discussing inflation and instead declared that France was "at a time when fellatio is close to zero."(AFP)